Perdido Street Station - China Mieville

The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the centre of its own bewildering world. Humans and mutants and arcane races throng the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the rivers are sluggish with unnatural effluent, and factories and foundries pound into the night. For more than a thousand years, the parliament and its brutal militia have ruled over a vast array of workers and artists, spies, magicians, junkies and whores. Now a stranger has come, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand, and inadvertently something unthinkable is released. Soon the city is gripped by an alien terror - and the fate of millions depends on a clutch of outcasts on the run from lawmakers and crime-lords alike. The urban nightscape becomes a hunting ground as battles rage in the shadows of bizarre buildings. And a reckoning is due at the city's heart, in the vast edifice of Perdido Street Station. It is too late to escape


This book looks daunting, just at the sheer size and weight of it, but China has a wonderful way of enticing you into his world. This is a world where the aliens live among people, and humans live among cactus people. The main character of this book himself girlfriend is not from this world. Mieville paints this great picture of a world very unlike our own but with similarities and links to worlds we know. This made the book very interesting but also easy to relate to in respects that he kept some grounding elements to this novel.

The base story about giant flying insects (similar to butterflies) and drugs, and the mafia, had some very dark undertones. But was very fascinating to the reader. I don't think i got the full depth of this story and all the little things surrounding it, but the bulk of the story was enough to keep me gripped. This novel requires some concentration and you do have to be in the mood to read it. And although i read a lot, i could only read this in short bursts.  

The only flaw to the novel is China does like to waffle, to pad out his stories and go off on a tangent. Which makes the reader drift off course slightly. However the main story was really interesting, and its approachable whether your a sci-fi/fantasy liker or not. If you like to read Iwould recommend a China Mieville book.